


Cisco's Guide to Enjoying the Holidays

by areyouarealmonster



Series: Oculus [2]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, GoldenVibe Week 2016, goldenvibe - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-07 07:22:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8788864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/areyouarealmonster/pseuds/areyouarealmonster
Summary: Lisa spends Christmas with Team Flash (and her sick brother).





	1. Worry

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Goldenvibe Week 2016! 
> 
> This fic is in my Oculus-verse, which you do not have to read to know what's going on here. If you want more background, though, this takes place at the end of the [first chapter of Oculus](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7984681/chapters/18270019), which is entirely Leonard-focused, with some members of Team Flash making an appearance.
> 
> Again, though, this fic is a standalone. Enjoy!
> 
> Thanks to Sali for being a wonderful beta!

Lisa’s worried.

 

Lisa doesn’t get worried, as a rule. She goes with the flow, that’s her thing.

 

But, when it comes to her brother, well. He doesn’t spook easy, and she may not know what’s going on with him, but she can tell he’s scared.

 

So she’s worried.

 

She’s out of town when she gets the call: “Hey, Lisa. Um, I’m back. Meet me at S.T.A.R. Labs?” Something in his voice makes her not ask questions, and that’s rare for her. So she hurries back to Central City, walks into S.T.A.R. Labs, and sees a ghost.

 

She doesn’t know who the man wearing her brother’s face is, but it sure as hell ain’t Lenny. He’s pale, twitchy, silent. Lenny’s always been quiet; he picks his words very carefully, but nothing like this.

 

This man wearing her brother’s body just watches, his eyes hidden behind goggles, behind sunglasses.

 

It’s December 19th. Lenny came back two days ago, and nobody will tell her what’s going on.

 

Lisa’s fucking terrified.

 

The worst part of it is that she can’t go to her brother for help. That’s who she always turns to when things go wrong, when she’s scared. But Lenny’s shut down right now, and she knows him well enough to know that he needs space.

 

So what’s a girl to do? Well, this girl bides her time. Lisa sits by her brother, and she waits; waits until Cisco heads off to his workroom to fiddle with something. Then she gives Lenny an excuse, not that he hears it, and she follows Cisco.

 

“Hey, Cisco,” Lisa purrs, leaning against the doorframe of the workroom. Cisco starts, and she just grins at him.

 

“Lisa. Uh, I wasn’t expecting you.”

 

“That was the plan.” Lisa saunters into the room, enjoying the way Cisco’s eyes follow her. It’s nice to be appreciated in a non-leery way; it happens so infrequently. Plus, it’s gonna help her get answers out of him. Any trick in the toolbox to get her way. “Now,” she says sweetly, leaning down over Cisco’s work station, “you are going to tell me what’s going on with my brother and in exchange, I am _not_ going to turn something you love into gold.”

 

Cisco swallows. “Gold is valuable, that’s not a big threat. Many people immortalize the things they love by dipping them in various metals.”

 

“Even if the thing I turn to gold is attached to you?” She smirks, toeing the line between evil and seductive. Cisco’s pretty eyes go wide, and he rolls his chair back a few inches.

 

“Okay, okay. Why don’t you just ask Snart, though?”

 

“Lenny wouldn’t tell me, right now. You’ve seen him, he barely knows where he is. He can’t form coherent sentences, he’s not even really lucid. So I need _you_ to tell me what’s wrong with him.”

 

“Um. It’s kinda complicated…”

 

“You don’t think I can handle complicated?”

 

“Lisa, I’m not even sure I understand what’s going on with him. He barely answers our questions as it is.”

 

Lisa perches at the edge of his work station, nudging electronics and bits of metal out of the way with her butt. “Okay, so tell me what you know. If I don’t get what you’re saying, I’ll ask you to explain it. Deal?”

 

“Ah, I’m gonna regret this, but deal.” Lisa gestures at Cisco to begin, and he complies.

 

“Okay, so uh. Something happened to your brother, we’re not really sure what, but it seems as though he can kind of, uh, _see_ time.” Lisa raises an eyebrow at him, and he continues. “Look, I’m not really sure how to describe it, but…”

 

“But?”

 

“Well, apparently he, uh…died.”

 

“WHAT?!”

 

Cisco holds up a hand, trying to be placating. “Calm down, clearly he’s not dead anymore.”

 

Lisa feels like she can’t get a deep breath. She knows her brother’s in the other room, but her heart’s plummeted into her stomach anyway. She meets Cisco’s eyes and knows that he’s seen her falter. He’s seen the chink in her armor. She’s surprisingly okay with it, or maybe she’s just freaking out too much to care. “Go on.”

 

“He came back…different.”

 

“Yeah, clearly.” She forces herself to breathe in deep, reminding herself that her brother is here, alive. Maybe not well, but at least he’s not dead.

 

“Well, whatever happened to him, he now has the ability to at least see people’s pasts, presents, and futures.”

 

“Wow, okay.” It’s a lot, but Lisa files it away, stores it so she can go back to and deal with it later. She doesn’t want it to overwhelm her, not just yet. So she scoots off the table, ready to go process this new information next to her brother, but Cisco stops her.

 

“Lisa, I need to tell you something else. We didn’t find him two days ago.”

 

“Excuse me?” There’s a roaring in her ears.

 

Cisco looks sheepish. “Your brother’s been here, in a coma, since May.”

 

Since…May? The worry burns off fully and all that’s left is cold fury. Lisa may have a different style than Lenny, but she’s his sister to the core. Her anger is ice and daggers, and it’s just as deadly as Lenny’s.

 

“Cisco,” she says, her voice turned sickeningly sweet, “I’m hurt.” She pouts, and advances on him. He pushes back his chair, but he can only go so far before he hits the wall. Lisa puts her hands on the armrests and leans over him. “Did you even think about me?”

 

“Lisa—”

 

“Did you just forget about me, Cisco? I thought we really had something special.” Lisa bats her eyelashes, slow and sweet, but she’s coiled and ready to strike. Cisco swallows a response and she moves, wraps her hand around his throat, digs her nails into the side of his neck—hard enough to leave a mark but not enough to break the skin. Yet.

 

She keeps her voice soft, at odds with the hand she’s got around his throat, as she continues: “How could you, Cisco? You, of all people, know what I would do for my brother. So, I want you to think very hard about what you are going to say before you say it. Okay?”

 

Cisco nods, and Lisa removes her fingernails from his neck. She stays looming over him, though, so he knows how serious she is. Cisco takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Lisa.”

 

“Try again.” Lisa runs her fingernails along Cisco’s jaw, still not enough to break the skin, more of a threat. An, ‘I can cut you, and I will,’ of sorts.

 

“I tried to find you!”

 

“How hard did you try, Cisco?” Lisa grabs a fistful of Cisco’s hair, pulls his head back, exposing his throat. “Because I don’t think you tried hard enough.” She expects him to protest, to try to apologize again. What she doesn’t expect is for him to start crying. It’s enough of a shock that Lisa releases her clutch on his hair. “Cisco?”

 

“Sorry,” he replies, trying to stem the tears, “I’m sorry, I just…I just lost my brother, a few months back.”

 

Lisa touches Cisco’s hair again, this time to tuck it behind his ear. He looks up, eyes full of tears, and Lisa feels herself leaning in to hug him. She’s still upset, but she can’t be furious at him, especially not when faced with someone who’s just lost a brother. She’d met Dante, under less-than-ideal (for him) circumstances, true, but she knew him. She knew that Cisco had given up The Flash’s identity for him. And now to find out that he’s gone, well, that hurts her heart.

 

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you Snart was here,” Cisco says again, and this time, Lisa lets it go. She curls up on his lap, running her fingers through his soft hair, letting him cry himself out on her shoulder.


	2. Childhood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas has never been her favorite holiday, anyway.

It’s the day before Christmas, and Lenny still won’t focus on her.

 

His eyes stop before they hit her face, always moving, always twitching. Lisa’s come and gone a few times, but she’s pretty sure her brother hasn’t noticed.

 

Christmas has never been her favorite holiday, anyway. Her dad always drank more than usual and instead of presents, she got sharp words and smashed bottles. Then, when Lenny pulled her out, they barely had enough to afford rent and food, let alone a tree. Let alone presents. Her brother tried to always get her a treat, but even at ten years old, she knew that he emptied his pockets daily for her anyway. She didn’t need a present. She needed…a vegetable, once in a while. 

 

Lenny did what he could, but there was no fighting the fact that when he, according to the law, kidnapped his baby sister from their father, he was barely twenty-two. Ten years younger than Lisa is, right now. He couldn’t get a real job—he was on more than a few wanted lists for child abduction—so he had to make do with petty thievery. Lenny didn’t start off a great thief; he had to earn his place in the world first. That was hard to do with a ten-year-old at home, and nobody else to tap in. Lenny couldn’t afford a bad day, a job gone wrong, a penny lost.

 

So he worked hard. He got them forged IDs, cut all Lisa’s hair off, enrolled her in school in a different city, under a different name. Lily. Lily Snow. She was Lily Snow for so long that it was hard to go back to being Lisa Snart when she turned sixteen and officially filed for emancipation. A day past her birthday, and she stood in front of the courts, with her brother next to her in chains, and told them that he saved her life. She showed the courts her scar, with tears in her eyes. They carted both of them off to jail, then—her father for years, her brother for months. But Lisa was free. And her brother came back to her, soon enough.

 

Lenny was the kind of big brother who would’ve showed up to every dance recital, every school play, every soccer game, if only Lisa had been allowed to participate in extracurricular activities. “Too dangerous, sis,” was all Lenny would say when she pleaded with him, told him that all her friends were on the team, in the play, on the stage. “I can’t lose you.” She wasn’t grateful, at the time. She is now.

 

When she was old enough to join him on jobs, Christmas was a high time for robbery. Stores were packed, workers were overwhelmed, police were spread thin. It was never a time of celebration—only about the next job, the next score, the next meal. And then they got older, and there never seemed to be time. Lisa got her own place and worked jobs without her brother. Lenny left the city for a while to become a world-renowned thief. They talked all the time, but they never called on the holidays. Why remind each other of the pain in their past? Lisa usually got drunk, alone, in her apartment. The only difference she expects from this year is to get drunk in S.T.A.R. Labs, instead of her apartment, while being completely ignored by her brother.

 

It’s not fair to him, really. He doesn’t just ignore Lisa, he ignores everyone. Sometimes he’ll answer direct questions. Most of the time, it’s like he doesn’t even hear whoever’s asking, or really notice that anyone is in the room with him. Still, it stings. Lenny is everything to her: brother, father figure, and best friend, all rolled into one sarcastic package. It hurts that he won’t, or maybe can’t, meet her eyes.

 

So when Cisco asks, “Hey, you got any plans for Christmas?” she doesn’t process it at first. Why would she have plans? Christmas isn’t anything special. She says as much, and Cisco looks startled. “Well, we’re all having dinner at Joe’s house tomorrow night. You wanna join?”

 

“Thanks for the invite, but I’m not sure everyone will be happy to have me there,” she replies, her eyes flicking to Joe and back.

 

“It’ll be hard for him to kick you out if I bring you as my date.” Cisco’s so earnest that Lisa has to laugh.

 

“Cisco, it’s fine. I was just planning on getting a bottle of bourbon and hanging out here with Lenny.” She looks over at her brother, and sees that he’s fast asleep on the cot, the hand that’s attached to an IV dangling over the edge, the machines he’s hooked up to beeping steadily. It’s a pathetic argument, and she knows it.

 

Cisco keeps pushing, but it’s so clear that he just wants to help that she can’t even be mad. “Look, I’ll set up an alert so that if he needs anything, Barry can come speeding back here, with you in tow. Come on! You can even bring your brother some leftovers!”

 

Lisa knows when she’s beat, and she accepts the invitation. “Can I wear a pretty dress?”

 

“Yeah, if you want. The girls generally wear cute outfits, but it’s as casual as you want it to be.”

 

Lisa smirks, thinking of a slinky gold dress in her closet that she’s been waiting for an opportunity to wear. She meets Cisco’s eyes, and grins even wider as she watches him imagine the kind of outfit she’ll pull out for this. He certainly won’t be disappointed. This might actually turn out to be fun.


	3. Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lisa’s wearing a golden floor-length dress that shimmers in the lights, with lipstick to match.

Lisa absolutely overdressed for the occasion, she notes as she walks into Joe West’s house. She took a cab, not wanting to get her pretty dress covered in road dust from driving over on her motorcycle. Iris, Caitlin, and Jesse certainly look very pretty and more dolled up than usual, but they’re still relatively casual, and Lisa’s wearing a golden floor-length dress that shimmers in the lights, with lipstick to match. She still smiles wide, baring her teeth, daring anyone to comment.

 

Only Cisco does, stepping forward to greet her, pulling her out of her defensive stance and into the living room. “Wow, Lisa. You look amazing.” Then he’s pouring her a drink, getting her a snack, smiling up at her. She doesn’t relax, exactly. It’s hard to relax when you’re a known thief in a room with The Flash and all of his teammates—and she figured out who The Flash was long ago, back when the face she saw hiding behind a coffee cup at Jitters lined up with the face she saw in the mask at S.T.A.R. Labs.

 

It’s hard to relax when you’re pretty sure only one person in the room genuinely likes you. But she feels a little more at ease as she lets Cisco take her hand and lead her around the room.

 

From then on, it’s all normal conversation, and she only has to field a few thinly-veiled jabs at her past, or her brother’s past. Cisco helps her avoid the more obvious questions, either by stepping in, or by subtly changing the subject. It’s skillful, and thoughtful.

 

Lisa’s vaguely surprised to find that she actually might like most of the people in the room. Caitlin’s still too uptight for her taste, and she avoids Joe except for a quick ‘thank you’ for letting her come to the party. He’s still a detective, and she’s still a thief.

 

Lisa likes everyone else she chats with, but she really hits it off with Iris.

 

Iris is fascinating, brilliant and tough, and Lisa can see why Barry likes her so much. Why everyone likes her so much. She’s kind to Lisa, too. From the first sentence, Iris treats Lisa like she belongs here, in this house, with this family, and Lisa doesn’t know what to do with that.

 

It’s weird, because she’s never had a lot of female friends. She’s never had a lot of friends, period. In the job, you have to keep yourself apart, or you’re gonna get burned. Gender doesn’t matter, you never know who’s gonna turn on you the second the wind changes. But these people are unlike anyone else she’s ever hung out with. She doesn’t know how to feel.

 

“Hey Lisa,” Cisco cuts through her thoughts, “you look kinda pale. Wanna get some air?”

 

She nods, excuses herself from the spirited conversation between Iris, Jesse, and Barry, and lets Cisco lead her outside. Lisa wishes she hadn’t left her leather jacket on the back of the couch. It’s chillier outside than she’d expected, and her dress provides very little protection. Cisco notices, though, and takes off his suit jacket to drape around her shoulders. He’s quiet, giving her space, letting her breathe, but she doesn’t want space anymore. Not out here, alone with Cisco.

 

She steps forward, wraps her arms around him, and kisses him. His response is enthusiastic, and highly enjoyable. Lisa finds herself sinking into the kiss, the press of Cisco’s lips against hers, his tongue slipping into her mouth, his hands firm on her waist—and then the door bangs open and there’s a loud “Oh!”

 

Lisa pulls back and turns to find Caitlin in the doorway, glaring daggers. Well, Caitlin doesn’t hold the patent on sour expressions, and Lisa sneers at her, pulls away from Cisco, shrugs his jacket off, and stalks inside. Cisco looks sheepish, almost embarrassed in her wake, and he’s got traces of her gold lipstick around his mouth. She hears Caitlin tell Cisco that dinner is starting, and won’t he please come inside and sit down?

 

Lisa starts to head to the table, but realizes she has no idea where to sit, so she changes direction and heads to the bathroom instead. She figures that once she gets out, they’ll have decided where to put her. She isn’t sure why Caitlin being disapproving of her kissing Cisco matters so much to her. It’s not like she needs Caitlin’s permission to fool around with the guy!

 

Except.

 

Except that _kiss_.

 

Except that Lisa’s not sure she only wants to fool around with Cisco.

 

Lisa thinks she might have _feelings_ for Cisco. She thinks that maybe she really did mean what she said to him a few months back, that he might be her first real friend.

 

And if she’s thinking about dating Cisco, it would be nice if his friends didn’t hate her.

 

She takes a deep breath, touches up her makeup, and steps back out to the dining room with a smile plastered on her face. She’s nothing if not a fantastic actress. And she was right, everyone else has taken their seats around the dinner table, and there’s only one empty seat, between Cisco and Iris. Thank god.

 

When she sits down, though, it’s not what she’d expected. She’s got her game face on, but Caitlin leans across the table at her and smiles awkwardly.

 

“Sorry for interrupting you and Cisco, Lisa! I was just trying to bring you in for dinner!” Lisa just gapes at her, unsure of what to say to the opposite response she’d been expecting. Caitlin’s still looking at her, wide-eyed and earnest. Cisco puts his hand on Lisa’s back, snapping her back to reality, edging her forward.

 

“Um, that’s okay, Caitlin.”

 

Lisa gets a wide smile in return, and conversation around the table resumes. Lisa’s still confused, and she only gets more confused when Iris turns to her.

 

“Are you having fun, Lisa?” God, what is with these people and _earnest looks_? Lisa has never been around so many people who are so open, so easily readable.

 

“I, I guess?”

 

“Well, you and Cisco seem to have hit it off great! He really likes you!”

 

“Yeah?”

 

Iris laughs, kindly. “Yes!”

 

Lisa peeks to her other side, to see Cisco engaged in an intense conversation about…physics? Maybe? She’s not sure. There’s a lot of technical language moving between him, Caitlin, Harry, and Jesse. He notices her glance, and puts his hand on her leg, rubs his thumb across her thigh briefly, then removes his hand and goes back to the conversation. Lisa reaches out and grabs his hand, threading their fingers together, again. Cisco looks over, grinning at her with that _gorgeous_ smile, and resumes his conversation once more.

 

Lisa turns back to Iris. “I guess I like him too.”

 

“I could tell!” Iris smiles at her. “Welcome to Team Flash, Lisa Snart.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [This](http://www.inspirationbycolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/ralph-lauren-2006-1.jpg) is the dress Lisa is wearing, in case anyone was wondering


	4. Goodnight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cisco puts his arm around her waist as they walk back to the car, and she thinks she may be getting more than a steamy goodnight kiss when they get back to her apartment.

After dinner and another delicious glass of Grandma Esther’s famous eggnog, Cisco drives her back to S.T.A.R. Labs, so she can hand off the bag of leftovers Iris packed for Lenny. When they get into the Cortex, her brother is sitting up, on the cot, staring off into space. As usual. But when Lisa walks in, he actually looks up, actually meets her eyes.

 

“Hey, sis,” he says, smirking, and she all but shoves the food at Cisco and throws her arms around her brother. “Woah, why the hug?” Lenny asks, but he holds her tightly anyway.

 

“You’re starting to look like yourself again,” she replies into his shoulder, and pulls back, looking into his eyes. Lenny cocks his head at her, confused. She clarifies, “You’ve seemed a bit out of it since you woke up, that’s all.”

 

“Well, sis, I do have all of time in my head. It’s a lot to keep track of.” Lisa laughs, and is even happier to find a slight smile lurking on her brother’s face.

 

“I brought you food!” She gestures Cisco over, and he hands over the to-go bag.

 

“Thank you,” he says, taking the food, but Lisa can see that he’s already flagging.

 

“Do you want me to stay, or—”

 

“No,” he says, looking pointedly between her and Cisco. Damn, her brother’s observant. “Go. I’ll eat and go right to sleep. Thanks for bringing me dinner, Lis’.”

 

“Okay. See you tomorrow.”

 

Lenny nods, and Lisa leaves with only a twinge of regret. Her brother will be fine, and her staying to keep an eye on him would only frustrate the both of them. Plus, Cisco puts his arm around her waist as they walk back to the car, and she thinks she may be getting more than a steamy goodnight kiss when they get back to her apartment.

 

She’s not wrong.

 

Cisco walks her to her door, then up the stairs to her apartment.

 

He says yes when she invites him in.

 

The second the door closes behind him, Lisa kisses him, slipping her shoes off as she walks backwards, pulling him by his lapels into her bedroom. Out of her stilettos, she’s on a level with Cisco and as much as she loves towering over him, it’s nice to not have to crane her neck down to kiss him.

 

They get to her bed and she stops him, twirls around, and moves her hair out of the way. “Help a girl out, Cisco?”

 

His hands find the zipper of her dress, then she feels him pressing kisses down her back as he pulls the zipper down. She steps out of the dress, enjoying the sound Cisco makes when he realizes she isn’t wearing any underwear. “Your turn,” she says, turning back around and slipping her hands under his jacket, pushing it over his shoulders onto the floor.

 

She’s got his shirt off and she’s working on his belt when he stops her. “Lisa, wait.” She takes a step back, slowly pulling his belt with her as she goes. “If we’re going to do this, I don’t want it to just be a one-night stand.”

 

“I don’t either,” she replies, and then wraps herself around Cisco and pulls him with her down onto her bed.

 

After that, Cisco’s all hers. And god, is he ever attentive. With his head between her legs, he responds to every gasp, every sigh, every moan she makes; responds, and adjusts accordingly. Cisco’s amazing at this, and she can tell he’s enjoying himself almost as much as she is. Soon enough, she’s coming so hard she sees stars, her hands grasping at bedsheets, Cisco’s name on her lips. When she’s done riding out the orgasm, she looks down to see Cisco grinning up at her with that _smile_ , and, shit, she’s head over heels.

 

She pulls Cisco up to join her, to kiss her again, and she runs a hand through his hair as she reaches the other hand down to jerk him off. Now she gets to enjoy the noises he makes as he comes into her hand.

 

Then she finds out that Cisco’s a cuddler.

 

Lisa doesn’t know why she expected anything different. She’s _met_ him, after all. She just didn’t really think of how touchy-feely he was in relation to her. Lisa’s not used to letting people in, letting them get close, but…knowing Cisco applies in this situation as well. He’s so earnest, so open and kind, that Lisa feels herself relax, fully, in his arms.

 

She falls asleep, and doesn’t dream.


End file.
